Kelbo's

In the ever shrinking world of Tiki bars Kelbo's was ranked among the best. While it didn't feature any truly original drinks and the food was sub-par the atmosphere was spot on.

The interior was the creation of Eli Hedley. "One of the weirdest businesses in California, where weird businesses are a perfectly normal thing, is run by a 42-year-old ex-grocer ... who makes a living out of things the Pacific Ocean throws back," began a story in Life magazine in January 1946. As his beachcombing decor found favor on Hollywood sets and in the homes of stars, celebrities often dropped by the San Pedro home. "They'd come down there and disappear from Hollywood," Bassham says of the stories he's heard from his mother and three aunts. "The way he was, he'd pull a copa de oro flower off the vine, fill it with champagne and say, 'Here, drink this.' " Actor Raymond Burr was a close friend, who at one point optioned daughter Marilyn Hedley's book, "How Daddy Became a Beachcomber." The business grew, and by the 1950s, Hedley was in demand as a tropical decorator. He worked on tiki-themed Los Angeles nightspots, such as Don the Beachcomber and Kelbo's. The hostess area of Kelbo's featured what could only be described as a glowing Lucite wall filled with crap. Matchbooks, forks, knives, starfish, you name it encased in a glowing wall. A monolith to be discovered by some future civilization lies in a landfill somewhere. The ceilings were draped in fishing nets that held a virtual museum of sea bounty. Yes, Fugu were included. The preserved blowfish with a solitary Christmas light in the belly. The Pico location had a dance hall called the Coco-Bowl. It was a great room, dark, with palm trees and tiki's and a bandstand at the far end. For a while, Kelbo's had Francis Ford Coppola as a dishwasher until he was fired. His mind seemed to be elsewhere.

Kelbo's was the creation of Thomas KELley and Jack BOuck. They opened two locations in Southern California. Kelbo's-Fairfax. 101 north Fairfax Avenue across the street from CBS Television City. (Home of the Twilight Zone series) That location featured an outdoor garden and wishing well. The wells first coin was dropped by Lucille Ball with Desi standing at her side.

The other location was Kelbo's-Pico. 11434 West Pico Boulavard. That location closed almost 20 years ago and is now the home of FANTASY ISLAND Gentleman's club. Nothing remains of the spectacular interior.

They Always Come Back:
Kelbo's sadly will not be resurrected. I wish there was better news. In honor of Kelbo's, They Always Come Back has created some products based on the Kelbo's cocktail napkin logo. You can find them here. (Along with some other goodies.)
If you would like a close approximation of what Kelbo's was like visit BAHOOKA in the city of Rosemead California. The creator of Bahooka learned the Tiki Restaurant business while working at Kelbo's for ten years. Bahooka opened in 1967. It is more nautical than tiki but the spirit of Kelbo' lingers there.
R.I.P. Kelbo's

The Automat

The Automat is a fascinating slice of Americana. There is a great book on the subject. Buy it Read it.


An Automat was a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink were served by coin-operated vending machines.The automat featured what appeared to be completely automated food service, like a giant walk-in vending machine. The reality is there were no space "Robits" making your food. People worked at the automats. People like you and me. A cashier (A woman of course, as this was considered women's work) would sit in a glass-enclosed change booth in the center of the restaurant. Usually the booth was lipped by a wide marble counter with five to eight rounded depressions in it. She would serve many customers at once, taking their money from the depressions and dropping nickels in its place. The diner would insert the required number of coins and then slide open a window to remove the meal. The "machines" were filled via the human staff from the kitchen behind. The machines had a locking device that would ensure the food was in place before the front panel could be opened.
Unlike modern vending machines, food was served on real crockery with metal utensils, and drinks were served in glasses made of real honest to goodness glass.
Inspired by the Quisiana Automat in Berlin, the first automat in the U.S. was opened June 12, 1902 at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia by Horn & Hardart.The automat was brought to New York City in 1912 and gradually became part of popular culture in northern industrial cities. Horn & Hardart was the most prominent automat chain. During 1940s and 1950s, there were over 50 Horn and Hardart’s restaurants in New York City, serving about 350,000 customers a day.

The format was threatened by the growth of suburbs and the rise of fast food restaurants catering to cars (with their drive-thru windows and car hop service) in the 1950s; by the 1970s their remaining appeal was strictly nostalgic. Another contributing factor to their demise was undoubtedly the inflation of the 1960s and 70s, making the food too expensive to be bought conveniently with coins. This was way before the invention debit card swiper or bill acceptors that are commonplace on todays vending equipment.
Another form of the Automat was used on some passenger trains, the last United States example being an Automat car on Amtrak's short-lived service to Janesville, Wisconsin in 2001. These were limited by mechanical problems, since the machines weren't necessarily intended for the bumpy ride on the rails, but mainly because state laws that prohibited alcoholic beverages from being sold by a machine.
They are still very common in The Netherlands, but outside of there, few exist. The last real, non-Mobile Automat closed in the United States in 1991. However...

They Always Come Back:
in 2006, an automat opened in New York City's East Village with a very rocky start. Mired in bad blood, and legal problems stemming from a business partners actions, the American Automat struggled to stay alive. One of the partners, Robert Kwak, alleges in court papers that David Leong and "Nobu" Hai Nguyen blocked his access to the store's cell phone and e-mail accounts, tried to "terminate" him, and banned him from the premises. The other side says Robert tried to steal from him. They worked out their personal issues and the Automat survived.

The difference between automats of the past and this new incarnation is the dining space.

None.

Bamn! serves food to go.
Half a concept is not always better than no concept at all.

Visit Bamn!

If you would like your own automat machine contact these people.

If you have a hankerin' for some post depression era food and would like to make Horn & Hardart's Baked Macaroni and Cheese ... click here and go to "Recipies"

Trader Vic's

Victor J. "Trader Vic" Bergeron packed more excitement, enjoyment and exotica into his 82 years than any other man.
It all started when Victor Jules Bergeron was a waiter at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel (home of the Tonga Room) and owned a grocery store on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. His son - Victor, (Jr.) - grew up loving the food business, living with the family in an apartment above the store and helping out downstairs. A childhood accident cost him a leg, but left him with a penchant for telling colorful stories.

In 1932, with a nest egg of $700 and carpentry help from his wife's brothers - plus his mother's pot-bellied stove and oven - the ebullient Victor built a cozy pub across the street from the store and called it Hinky Dink's. His pungent vocabulary and ribald air made him a popular host, as did his potent tropical cocktail concoctions and delicious Americanized adaptations of Polynesian food.


Soon one of the most popular watering holes in Northern California's Bay Area, the place attracted sophisticated urbanites like writers Herb Caen and Lucius Beebe. By 1936, when Caen wittily wrote that the "best restaurant in San Francisco is in Oakland," Vic had become "The Trader" and Hinky Dink's had become "Trader Vic's," complete with a showpiece Chinese oven. Its South Pacific theme "intrigues everyone. You think of beaches and moonlight and pretty girls. It is complete escape," Vic said at the time. Among Trader Vic's more tantalizing legacies is the original Mai Tai, the bracingly refreshing rum cocktail he created at the restaurant in 1944 and introduced to the Hawaiian islands in the 1950s. Tahitian for "the very best," Mai Tai became the slogan for his entire operation.

In creating his new cocktail, Trader Vic employed what was becoming the ever-present hallmark of all his food and beverage recipes: a light touch, meant to enhance but never disguise nor overpower the fine original taste of his main ingredients. All of his recipes reflect the man's own personality: distinctive, lighthearted and memorable.

By 1946, the world had beaten a path to Vic's door, prompting Lucius Beebe to write in an introduction to "Trader Vic's Book of Food and Drink" published by Doubleday that year: "Trader Vic's is ... more than an Oakland institution. Its influence is as wide as the Pacific and as deep as a Myrtle Bank punch. Vic's trading post is long on atmosphere, and it is possible for the ambitious patron with a talent for chaos to get into more trouble with obsolete anchors, coiled hausers of boa-constrictor dimensions, fish nets, stuffed sharks... Hawaiian ceremonial costumes, tribal drums, boathooks and small bore cannon than the waiters can drag him out of in a week."

The Trader eventually opened 25 Polynesian-style restaurants around the world, and several Señor Pico Mexican restaurants. His son, Lynn Bergeron, eventually took over the restaurant operation and remains Chairman Emeritus of Trader Vic's Restaurant Company.

The Trader's eldest daughter, Jeanne B. Hittell, is retired, having served for many years on the Board of Directors and as Secretary/Treasurer of the Trader's companies. Daughter Yvonne E. Seely, is also retired after decades of dedication to charity work on behalf of Trader Vic's.

Sadly the Bay Area Trader Vic's closed last week. The Beverly Hills location closed last year. Trader Vic's is on its way to becoming just another memory.

They Always Come Back:
Several incarnations of the Trader Vic's Mai Tai formula can be found here.

The Trader Vic's Mai Tai mix is no longer being sold at Von's grocery stores. The entire Safeway chain is affected as they claim it has been discontinued, which is bad news indeed. As of today the mix can be found here.

Alice In Wonderland. The Musical Porno.

I know this is a stretch. This is the first film I am posting on this site. All films come and go so what is so special about this one? Its a quirky 70's porn based on a children's story that is an original musical. This is possibly the oddest film ever made. I'm not kidding when I say you'll be singing these songs long after you have gone blind from the porn.

Alice in Wonderland (sometimes listed as Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Porno) is a 1976 pornographic musical film, loosely based on Lewis Carroll's children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was directed by Bud Townsend and starred Terri Hall, Bree Anthony, and Kristine DeBell. The theatrical release of the film was on December 10, 1976 in the USA. On May 26-27 it was shown at the Grand Illusion Cinema in Seattle, Washington during Satellites 2000: Screens From Outer Space.
The film initially received a X-rating in 1976 and subsequently, an R-rating a year later with 3 minutes cut from the film. It was later re-released on VHS with a somewhat grandiose title roll preceding the movie noting that quite a bit of hardcore footage had originally been shot, but 'could not be included' at the time. Several reviews opine that the added material actually makes the movie less enjoyable by dragging down its pacing.

Alice (Kristine DeBell) offends her would-be lover William (Ron Nelson) by rejecting his advances. Upset, she falls asleep reading Alice in Wonderland. The white rabbit (Larry Gelman) appears to her in a dream and takes her into a sexual wonderland. The story loosely follows Carroll's original plot, and includes many of his characters, but with considerable sexual license.

The film was produced by adult film mogul Bill Osco, the producer of the first mainstream adult film, Mona (1970), and its sequel Harlot (1971), as well as the comedy/stop motion effects hit, Flesh Gordon (1974). Osco chose to make as his next project a musical soft-core version of the Lewis Carroll novel, finding that the story rights were in the public domain. The result was an X-rated feature which was picked up by 20th Century Fox, who cut three minutes to obtain an R-Rating.
Released at Osco's suggestion by Fox on the same day as Star Wars, Osco having realized that the film was going to be a hit and convinced Fox to book Alice in every venue that played Star Wars. As a result, Alice went on to gross over $90 million dollars worldwide, thus making it one of the most successful adult films ever. Two years later the film was recut to add some reshot hardcore scenes, using some of the original actors, with an added credit scroll explaining the demand for the hardcore version.


Alice was circulated as an R-rated version in VHS format by Media Home Entertainment. The X-rated hardcore version was also available on VHS. Both have long been out of print.

They Always Come Back:
In December 2007, Subversive Cinema released a DVD containing the different versions, fully-restored, and available through mainstream DVD retail outlets.